Titanium
by Nightylilly
Summary: Rose and Grace were friends in an orphanage, drawn together by their shared magic. After being separated in their pre-teen years, Grace has transferred into Hogwarts, changing Rose's world again. Through teen troubles, Grace's haunting dreams, and an approaching evil, the friends reunite to face not only their destinies, but the fate of the wizarding world.


It was dark. The lightning flashed across the sky and thunder rolled through the clouds.

A small girl made her way down a long hallway. There were many doors, but she walked past each one, cautious of them. As if monsters watched from the little keyholes. Her bare feet made no sound on the cold marble floor. Her little white hand reached out in front of her, something glowing from it and lighting her path. She reached the end of the hall and placed the other hand gently on the doorknob. Her fingers clutched around the stinging metal, and the door creaked as she pushed, the weight more than she expected.

"Grace?" her soft voice echoed against the walls of the dusty storage closet, "Grace are you in here?" A clap of thunder swallowed the end of her question, and the hallway flashed with sudden brightness. There was a screech from inside the closet, and a little freckled face appeared in the beam of light. Grace stared at the other girl, her mouth opening and closing in embarrassment. She looked rather like a fish, thought the other girl.

"You're such a scaredy-cat, Grace." The girl teased.

"Am not!" Grace exclaimed in indignation. She crossed her arms across her chest and frowned. "I'm just startled easily." The other girl rolled her eyes and left the closet, the darkness once again engulfing Grace. "Wait Rose!" Grace whined, running after her.

Rose stopped and waited, laughing quietly to herself. It was true. Grace was easily startled. For all of the time that they were friends in the old depleted orphanage, she had been that way. Grace wasn't one to back down from a fight, on the contrary. Rose often got angry at Grace for trying to fight her battles. But where Rose seemed to never become frightened, Grace was afraid of the monsters in the closet, and the demons in the dark. The old nursery stories where the goons came to get you if you didn't obey your parents. Even though, Rose said, those stories couldn't come true, because they had no parents.

The two girls joined hands and made their way back down the hallway, the doors not looking so menacing anymore.

* * *

Rose stepped out of the taxi, looking up at the enormous building that was Grand Central Station. She handed the taxi driver the last of her money, and dragged her tattered old bag out of the trunk, and lugged it into the building. She swallowed down the fear that was eating at her stomach, making it feel as if there were snakes slithering around in her insides. She was mystified by the throngs of people, rushing back and forth.

She found a map, and made her way towards the train platforms. She saw a girl, tall with long, softly curled hair, the color so close to caramel that it had to be her... No it couldn't be, Grace was taken away so long ago, there was no way that she could be here too. She hugged her parents, and ran straight at the wall. Grace's jaw dropped, and she ran toward the girl, about to grab her and save her from the hard brick wall that threatened to turn her into a pancake. Then the girl disappeared, as if she'd gone through the wall. Rose tried to stop, but there was no way she would be able to stop before hitting the wall, so she braced herself for impact. She closed her eyes and tensed her muscles, and nothing happened. She cautiously opened her eyes; in front of her was a long, red steam engine. All around her people hustled and bustled, yelling good byes, and giving hugs. She looked around, trying to find the girl who looked like grace, but couldn't see her anywhere. She boarded the train, and searched for an empty compartment to sit in.

It was obvious that the first-years were in the front. So Rose quickly walked past. She had loved the amazement of the first year, but the ickle firsties got more annoying and shorter, every year. She glanced at a compartment of seventh-year boys and lifted her chin, strutting forward. She didn't push her chest out, because she had finally gotten the double D's she always hoped she'd grow. She flipped her hair, smiling at them, but kept walking. Rose had gotten the response she had wanted. And they watched as she left.

There were plenty of compartments full of girls that Rose could have entered, but there was something about the girls in her year that pissed her off. Mostly because they were all bitches to her. But she knew how to deal with that. Rose finally got to a compartment right before the Prefect compartments with one girl sleeping in it. She quickly made sure the blonde pile of curls wasn't bright enough to be Luna, the weird Ravenclaw girl. They looked more similar to the curls she saw earlier. Shrugging it off, Rose took a seat across from the caramel curls. They moved gently up and down, so Rose assumed the girl was sleeping. Rose scrutinized herself, deciding that she'd take advantage of the lack of twins breathing down her neck, and change out of the grubby pajama pants she had worn on the grueling cab ride to London. She closed the curtain over the clear doors to the compartment, double checking that her ginger friends hadn't seen her enter. She stripped quickly, grabbing her robes from her duffel bag and stuffing her other clothes in there. She was glad she had worn her red lacy underwear. At least she matched for her first day. Rose pulled her robe out of the bag and turned to put it on the seat when she heard an unmistakable click behind her. White hot anger pulsed through her, and she felt a scream rising in her throat as the flash followed and her duffel bag was ripped from her hands. A long string of expletives exploded from her as she leaned out of the compartment door, clutching her robe to her chest. Rose barely heard the screech from the pile of curls, and the thump that followed. Rose blushed madly, only now noticing the lock to the doors, and shut them again. She spun to find that her companion had fallen upon the ground. "Oops." She muttered, wrapping her robe around herself, and reaching a hand out to help up the other girl.

"Sorry," The girl hardened her jaw, looking at Rose defiantly, "I startle easily."

* * *

ooc: This is a story me and my friend Marj are writing. Not sure how far it will go, since we always seem to hang out and not write, and we sometimes have super conflicting opinions and fight a lot, but hopefully it'll finish. We're aiming at weekly updates, but it all depends. Senior year gets very busy, especially with Marj taking classes at the local community college. Thanks for reading! We love feedback, suggestions, and plot ideas.


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